


A Dream by Any Other Name

by Red Charade (traciller)



Series: Domestic Coldflash [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Barry's a weirdo, Established Relationship, Humor, Len's a sweet boyfriend, M/M, Nightmares, Some Fluff, attempted humor, domestic silliness, mention of trauma-induced nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-05-02 07:55:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5240603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traciller/pseuds/Red%20Charade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Len is shocked awake in the middle of the night when Barry starts screaming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dream by Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own CW's The Flash or any of its characters. I am making no profit from this work. This is purely for entertainment purposes only.
> 
> This fic is now available in Chinese!!!: http://feifyt.lofter.com/post/1cb22d64_a360289

Len usually kept the cold gun near the bed these days. Tonight, it was in its case and slid underneath the bed. If he had time and the ability to get out of bed, he could have it out and charged, ready to go, in seconds. It was already fully ready, in case something happened in the middle of the night that might require him to need it.

However, he didn't have time or the ability to get it tonight. He'd been woken up from a dead sleep by his boyfriend who had started screaming bloody murder. Just a loud, wordless scream that had shocked Len awake and had the hairs on the back of his neck (and the rest of his body, if he was honest) standing on end. He'd NEVER heard Barry scream like that before, so it was only natural that Len was...alarmed, to say the least.

That in and of itself wouldn't have kept him from grabbing the cold gun. In fact, one might think that that would be his first instinct. Something's wrong, something bad's going on, and someone with Len's background and line of work (and who is dating a superhero) would immediately alight on the idea that someone had broken in. Maybe with him as a target, maybe with Barry as the target. Maybe both of them. So, why hadn't he gone for the gun?

Well, his boyfriend also had one hand locked right on Len's face and squeezing hard. Not hard enough to cause him to worry too much, but enough to panic him a bit at first until he realized it was his boyfriend's hand and not some assailant's, and enough to impede his breathing just a little. It wasn't impossible to breathe, just a bit more labored.

It took him a few moments to extricate himself from Barry's hold, and he'd admit that he wasn't quite as gentle about it as he could have been...but he wasn't mean about it, either.

“Barry!” he called, once he'd looked around and saw that...nobody was in the damn room. Nothing seemed disturbed or out of place from what he could see in the darkness with the dim light from the moon shining in. “Barry, wake up...wake up!! You're dreaming! Wake up!” he called, allowing his voice to raise to a shout again as he reached over and shook his boyfriend firmly.

Barry gasped awake and sat up. “W-what…?” he asked, eyes a little wide. Though, part of that was just because it was difficult to see in the dark. The moonlight was helpful, but not too much since it was just a sliver in the sky tonight.

“You were screaming, Scarlet. You must have been having a bad dream...” Len said, reaching over to lightly rub at Barry's arm a bit, to comfort and reassure.

“Oh...um...” Barry blushed, glad that it was dark in the room. “Sorry...”

“No problem, Scarlet. You wanna talk about it?” Len knew a little something about bad dreams. He still had nightmares sometimes, too. About a lot of things. It had taken him a while to even tell Barry about them after he woke up from them, but at this point in their relationship they'd been together long enough that he would talk about them if he could. And given some of the things Barry had been through, Len wouldn't be shocked if he had some good nightmare fodder of his own. But, it was up to Barry if he thought he could talk. Len just wanted to make sure he knew he'd listen and be there for Barry the way Barry was often there for him in these situations.

“No...I don't really remember it now,” Barry answered.

“You sure…?” Len asked, a little worried as he moved his hand away from Barry's arm to rub his back lightly instead.

“Yeah, I'm sure. Maybe if I remember later...”

“Okay.” Len wasn't going to push, because he knew from his own experience that there was a time to push and a time to let it go. If Barry needed time to process first, then Len wanted to give him that. Especially since, even though Len got the feeling the speedster wasn't being as truthful with him as he could be, he also didn't seem to be in any distress right now.

Len pulled Barry close for a hug and kissed him softly.

“You're okay, then?” Len asked once they'd pulled back.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Really.” Barry said and smiled, leaning over to kiss Len one more time before they both settled back down and cuddled up. Len made sure to hold Barry close.

“I love you...” Barry said, nuzzling into Len's neck a little.

Len smirked a little. He liked that Barry had a tendency to burrow in like that. “I love you, too, Scarlet. Let's try to get some more sleep.”

“Okay.” Barry said and finally settled, allowing Len to settle, too.

He felt kind of bad for lying to Len about not remembering the dream. But, there was NO way he was going to admit that he'd actually just been dreaming that Len was about to fall out of bed and Barry had innocently reached over to pull him close to save him from that and murmuring, “Don't worry, I've got you.”

He had no idea how a dream like that could manifest in screaming in real life, but he was pretty sure if he'd admitted to it Len either wouldn't believe him or would find it so hilarious he'd never let Barry live it down. So, nope. He was taking this one to the grave.

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by this Tumblr post: http://today-ifuckedup.tumblr.com/post/133237712498/today-i-fucked-up-by-saving-my-husband
> 
> I probably didn't do it justice, but dammit...I just couldn't stop laughing every time I thought about the post. Someone had to write a Coldflash fic for this!
> 
> I was going to rate this General, but I decided to bump the rating up a bit since there's some mention of nightmares due to past trauma from Len.


End file.
